While the new Toyota GR Yaris won’t be competing in the World Rally Championship as the car manufacturer had originally intended, it will be racing in the Australian Rally Championship. The racer has been dubbed the GR Yaris AP4 and came to life thanks to a partnership between Toyota and Neal Bates Motorsport. It is based on the road-going model and will compete in the Asia-Pacific 4WD category, similar in spec and rules to the World Rally Championship’s Rally2 and R5 classes.
To meet regulations, the team behind the
GR Yaris AP4 have retained the car’s standard aluminum doors and carbon fiber
roof. Each completed car will weigh less than the 1,230 kg minimum, allowing
the team to ballast certain areas of the car to improve performance on
particular courses, Car Throttle notes.
Power is still provided by a 1.6-liter
turbocharged three-cylinder just like the road car, although an air restrictor
has been fitted and the turbocharger has been limited to 1.5 bar of maximum
pressure. Thanks to a unique exhaust manifold and other changes, however, the
car will have more than the standard model’s 268 hp in Aussie spec.
Working alongside the three-cylinder is a
Sadev six-speed sequential transmission sending power equally across all four
wheels. Neal Bates Motorsport has also overhauled the suspension system and
fitted dampers with 265 mm of travel at the front and 280 mm of travel at the
rear.
